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Come In Out Of The Storm, The Weather’s Nice Here: “Hey There Lonely Girl” by Eddie Holman

By Marcello Carlin



The seventies begin with a glance back to 1963, when Ruby and The Romantics made the Top 30 with their song “Hey There Lonely Boy.” Former child star Holman had been recording since 1962, had already amassed several useful records, including Northern Soul favourite “Eddie’s My Name,” and appears to have sung in early manifestations of The Delfonics and The Stylistics, but “Hey There Lonely Girl” was his moment, a fabulous, dreamlike rhapsody of romantic redemption, so flawlessly done that you don’t initially notice his extraordinary falsetto or wonder at all about androgyny. Yet Holman’s falsetto is one of the best there is, technically adept and emotionally satisfying, a clear precursor of Russell Thompkins, Jr., and in this context the song can be interpreted as an invitation to one battle-scarred casualty of a tumultuous decade to seek sanctuary in the (hopefully) better light of a new one.

Date Record Made Number Two: 21 February 1970
Number Of Weeks At Number Two: 1
Record At Number One: “Thank You (Falettin’ Me Be Mice Elf Agin)/Everybody Is a Star” - Sly & The Family Stone
UK Chart Position: 4 (1974 reissue)

Comments

  1. Allen Baekeland31 January 2018 at 20:23

    I remember Tony Blackburn and Emperor Rosko played it so much as an oldie that it had to be reissued.

    ReplyDelete

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